Scotland's Gary Naysmith insists he is satisfied with the new proposed bonus scheme which could see him and his team-mates playing for almost nothing.

Scotland's Gary Naysmith insists he is satisfied with the new proposed bonus scheme which could see him and his team-mates playing for almost nothing.

After a meeting with team manager Berti Vogts, the Scotland players' committee agreed to a structure which would only see the squad remunerated if they actually qualify for the finals of major tournaments.

And, although Scotland's qualification record in recent times is poor - they failed in their bid to get to the last two major championships - the prospect of appearing for appearance money only does not bother Naysmith.

The Everton defender said: "I don't know the ins and outs of it but I think it is a good way forward.

"It's about playing for Scotland, it's not about playing for money and getting rewarded if you're successful is the way to go."

The financial gamble that Naysmith and his team-mates are set to take in the future is perhaps a result of the confidence the Scots took from their 1-1 draw with Germany at Hampden the end of last season.

Naysmith, speaking before the squad left to play Norway in a friendly in Oslo tomorrow night, claimed he had no fears about the return game in Germany but admitted that qualification for Portugal 2004 through the play-offs is perhaps their best bet.

He added: "When we played Germany we more than matched them so we've no reason to fear them when we go over there.

"You've got to go into every game confident of winning and you can never go into a game thinking you're going to get beat.

"The players took a lot of confidence from the team playing well against them and I thought we thoroughly deserved the result that we got.

"Hopefully that will give us the confidence to go into the future games and hopefully we can finish at least second in the group.

"But if everything goes to form and goes the way everybody thinks then Germany are going to win their games and they're going to win the group.

"If that happens then we would need to win our two home games to ensure second place so I think that's what we've got to be looking at.

"I suppose Iceland are the main danger to us. If Germany don't beat Iceland in both their meetings then I think we have to got to Germany and get something.

"But it just seems strange to me that we've beaten Iceland twice and they're sitting above us in the group."

Naysmith admitted the Scots face another tough test in Oslo but the former Hearts player hopes for a positive outcome ahead of the upcoming qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and Germany.

He said: "At this stage every game is a test for Scotland. I wouldn't say we are in a position to say this is going to be an easy game.

"If we don't get beat then hopefully we can take that confidence into the double header in September and get a couple of good results."

* Bayern Munich star Michael Ballack has played down World Cup finalists Germany's chances of success at next summer's Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.

The midfielder has warned fans not to expect too much of Rudi V&#xF6;ller's men and identified European heavyweights such as holders France, Italy, Spain and Holland as potential champions.

"Nowadays we are not amongst the favourites," he said. "Some teams are far ahead of us."